Obama’s nonfundraising event in California

Friday’s White House event in San Jose was the oddest presidential appearance I’ve ever covered.

To start, the White House did not schedule the event until after The Chronicle ran this story by Carla Marinucci about Democrats ‘ resentment at the Obama White House’s failure to schedule public events when making fundraising forays in the Golden State. Then the White House scheduled an event on California’s implementation of the Affordable Care Act, but it wasn’t open to the public.

At a press call the day before the event, unnamed administration officials said that there would be no questions for the media, only a statement on the Affordable Care Act. On Friday, however, President Obama did take a question from the media on national surveillance, and his answer took longer than his Obamacare statement.

While the “Covered California” event at the Fairmont was not a fundraiser, it was not open to the public. The room was limited to the president, five people up on the stage with him, a few other people working logistics in the room, the White House Press Corps and local media.

Oddly, the president did not introduce the folks up on the stage with him — probably because when Obama got to the podium, he noticed that his statement was not there.

Then with his answer to a question by the New York Times’ Jackie Calmes, Obama stepped all over his intended San Jose message.